


Bruises

by serenbach



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Canon-Compliant Battle of Five Armies, M/M, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, tiny spoilers for the extended edition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 21:00:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5020375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenbach/pseuds/serenbach
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s fair to say that Bilbo hadn’t realised the first moment that Thorin had touched his skin. </p><p>Soulmate au based on this tumblr post "where you are not born with a mark and they only appear when your soulmate touches your skin for the first time and in the exact place where they touched you.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bruises

**Author's Note:**

> The first thing I've written in months and it's this sad mini fic. Sorry guys, the extended edition broke me and I've only seen dodgy clips of it on tumblr.
> 
> The original tumblr post is [here.](http://acorn-lover.tumblr.com/post/124755904305/soulmate-au-where-you-are-not-born-with-a-mark-and)

The marks on Bilbo’s wrist stood out starkly, blue-black like a fresh bruise although they were decades old.

The marks caused as much consternation in the Shire as his return did, not because of their placement (hands were a perfectly respectable location for soulmarks) but because of their _size_. His soulmark was made by fingers longer and broader than any hobbit hand. 

It’s fair to say that Bilbo hadn’t realised the first moment that Thorin had touched his skin. Between the rain and the darkness, his heart alternatively racing from the fright of his near-fall and stinging from Thorin’s harsh words, the ache from his wrist where Thorin had caught hold of him to haul him back over the edge of the cliff had been ignored.

He hadn’t noticed the marks until he arrived at Beorn’s, and still, he had dismissed it as just regular bruising. Thorin had even apologised for it, among other things, as they sat together in the skin-changer’s garden. Bilbo had laughed off his apology, reasoning that a few bruises were a small price to pay for Thorin saving his life.

It wasn’t until later, after Mirkwood and Lake-town, until after Smaug, after he had found the Arkenstone, that Bilbo had noticed that the marks were still there, realised what that meant.

Sometimes he couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if he had shown them to Thorin, if anything would have changed, if he would have lived.

The thought hurts, even after so long, but not as much as the memory of Thorin, lying peacefully with his nephews as his Company mourned him, his skin clean of blood but his death-pale hand still marked with the print of small fingers gripping desperately, the moment that Bilbo knew for the first time what it truly was that he had lost.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to cry about bagginshield with me on [tumblr.](http://serenbach86.tumblr.com/)


End file.
